Transportation Fee vs Pay to Play

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Our school district does not have a actual Pay to Play....but they will be instituting a Transportation Fee next year.
Fee is $110.00 per athlete per sport, with a maximum cap of $220.00. Fee has to be paid before the second game/event of that sport, or they do not get to attend and play until the payment has been made in full.

Now this is also a rural country school district that according to the State covers 121 square miles in which our school district stretches. The Board of Education is now looking at doing away with our High School busing for school for next year. So all of the 9th grade through 12th grade students/parents will have to find a way to and from school.

I would rather see them do away with the extra curricular busing and bus our kids to school. For the most part all of us parents already go to our kids games/events, so why not do away with this transportation and keep you transportation that is for educational purposes???

Any thoughts from the OFC world.......any of your schools looking into these type of measures for next year too?

 

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Call it Transportation Fee or Pay To Play. Same thing. The bottom line is that parents write a check so their kid can play a HS sport that was free five years ago....

(Theoretically speaking - and I know this is an impossibility - Do you think you wouldn't have a fee to pay if all your games were home games?)

 

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Will the rising costs of pay to play cause parents to unfortunately decide that it is just too much with school fees and travel fees? No matter what the select sport is.

 

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That is what I see happening Strohbro. Parents are going to say if I am going to pay that much then I am going to choose who coaches my dd/son and where they play. In most cases it will probably no longer be for the school. I am no longer going to just accept what the school district does and how much I have to pay. There are outlets of choice for every sport and families are going to start choosing club/aau/select teams or whatever you want to call them.

 

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This is also being done with our Middle School level sports.....missed that part of it. So it is now a school wide fee......and yes as stated previously. Either way you look at it transportation/pay to play it is the same thing.
I guess the biggest thing that will irk the parents in our district will be....that the High School student possibly will have no busing for the school year (this is dependent on whether the school levy passes or fails). And then if they play a sport the parents are having to pay a fee for busing.
Yes.....I think it will get to the point where school sports are going to go by the wayside with many athletes already involved in the AAU/select/Jr Olympic and all.

 

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Call it Transportation Fee or Pay To Play. Same thing. The bottom line is that parents write a check so their kid can play a HS sport that was free five years ago....

(Theoretically speaking - and I know this is an impossibility - Do you think you wouldn't have a fee to pay if all your games were home games?)

Good question, probably so. Even though ours is sold as "participation fee to cover fuel costs".
Ours is only around $35 per (for now). Yes, I feel fortunate. The community has supported our schools.

 

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I remember a few years back (5) I was in the AD's office at the end of the year and he made a comment about a check he just wrote being the biggest of the year, I asked what for and he said for transpertation. What I'm getting at is most all fees everyone talks about comes out of the athletic fund not the general, at least it's that way at our school

 

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About 15 years ago (I know, I'm getting freaking old), during my junior year of High School, we lost spring sports entirely..No option to pay to play, they just scrapped them all - We formed a club team with what would have been our high school team and played other schools in the district - After "high school" season was over, we all went on to our travel teams. Although I enjoyed the years with my school friends, my travel ball team was always more fulfilling for me...even then.

Some will not like the comment, but I will say it anyhow -I think that many OFC parents think much more of High School sports than their kids - Why??? Because when many of them grew up, that was all they had - That is where the competition was, and where they earned their "glory"... How many stories do you hear that start..."When I was in High School....." - The reality is, most of our DD's that play travel ball have much better relationships with their travel teamates...Regardless if they are from their town, or 200 miles away - Those are the people they care about in their softball, volleyball, ******, basketball circles...Not the kids they sit across from in Math class...Leave it up to your kids and I guarantee it will not matter if there is pay to play or not.

 

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Here in Avon, there are no buses for high schoolers.

 

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They took away high school bussing here at Midview a year ago. Whatever they call it, it's still more money we have to pay out for our kids to do what they enjoy. I think some of it is nostalgia, as far as us wanting our kids to play for their high school. The cold truth is that, if I have to pay for my DD to play a sport, I would rather she be able to choose the team and coaches that she plays for.

 

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Here in Avon, there are no buses for high schoolers.

Same thing in the Little Miami district. That was one of the first things they took away in hopes of getting some leverage at the polls for the levy vote. It didn't work.

Back to the polls on May 3rd for vote #8 on the levy. I wonder what the odds in Vegas are on this? :lmao:

 

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My daughter was really looking foward to her freshman year, playing in High School and representing her school. The season is nearing the end and she's still enjoying herself and her teammates. All but 2 of our Varisty team plays travel ball, so maybe that makes a difference. There's not a "drop" off in team talent. It's been a good experience. So am I willing to pay a fee to help cover transportation, umps or coaches? Yes. I am fortunate in that our fees are low.

 

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My daughter was really looking foward to her freshman year, playing in High School and representing her school. The season is nearing the end and she's still enjoying herself and her teammates. All but 2 of our Varisty team plays travel ball, so maybe that makes a difference. There's not a "drop" off in team talent. It's been a good experience. So am I willing to pay a fee to help cover transportation, umps or coaches? Yes. I am fortunate in that our fees are low.

Which school is this? Just curious.

Our district had a fee of $851 per sport this year. Are you willing to pay that?

 

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Which school is this? Just curious.

Our district had a fee of $851 per sport this year. Are you willing to pay that?

Merlion......that seems to be what is happening every where. My DD will be a freshman next year...no idea what will end up happening. Just have to wait for the May 3rd election, and go from there.
I know it is getting expensive across the board, between the select sports and HS/MS ball.......for me the most important part of the whole school issue is: my kid is here to get a education first and foremost, schools should be more focused on this side of things rather than what they need to be doing to keep sports at the school.....JMHO

 

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Call it whatever, it's still a "pay to participate" for the school team. I don't call it "pay to play" for school ball because that wasn't the intent of school teams. Select or travel ball is "pay to play" in my opinion.

If you want to participate, if the kids want to be on the team, $110 is not that bad a deal for 20+ games a season. That's only $5 or less a game depending on your school schedule. Still less than a movie or in my case a trip to Mickie D's.

 

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If you want to participate, if the kids want to be on the team, $110 is not that bad a deal for 20+ games a season. That's only $5 or less a game depending on your school schedule. Still less than a movie or in my case a trip to Mickie D's.

That isn't a bad deal, if it wasn't raining everyday.

 

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That is what I see happening Strohbro. Parents are going to say if I am going to pay that much then I am going to choose who coaches my dd/son and where they play. In most cases it will probably no longer be for the school. I am no longer going to just accept what the school district does and how much I have to pay. There are outlets of choice for every sport and families are going to start choosing club/aau/select teams or whatever you want to call them.

I totally agree with this statement, I posted something similiar this in another thread. What got me going on this is, I went to my DDs HS game a good hour drive and seen nothing but levy signs in every shool district I passed. Now imagine this across the state, and not just 3 countys. So, as stated above from bh2424gh I do beleive more families will choose club/select/aau over HS sports. Time will tell with voting taking place next week, it could be the begining of the end for a lot of school sports.